Oryctolagus cuniculus - The Rabbit

 The Rabbit

By Lachlan Royle 

Distribution and Colonisation of the UK 

If you were asked what the most common Mammal in the UK was you'd be forgiven for assuming it was the rabbit, particularly if you lived on campus at UEA. This medium to large sized rodent can now be found and what's more seen very obviously in every corner of the mainland. It hasn't always been this way though, the rabbit is originally a native of Spain, in the 12th century the Normans introduced the species to the UK for its pelt and for food. Initially rabbit populations remained relatively low, however in 1750 they started to explode as there were changes in farming practices and most notably more persecution of their natural predators through hunting. Rabbits can breed up to 6 times a year and can produce roughly 60 kits a year. This led to a population of roughly 100 million in the 1950's, then myxomatosis hit, this disease killed 99% of the rabbit population by the year 1990. It is difficult to currently predict the UK rabbit population with suggested figures ranging between 2-40 million, however they are slowly recovering and gaining in number once more.

Behaviour 

one of the hundreds of rabbits you can see at UEA 

The reason rabbits can multiple so quickly is due to the speed of growth, kits are born with closed eyes but within 25 days they are self sufficient and able to forage for themselves, within 4 months they reach sexual maturity and can have kits of their own. Despite this though these abundancies of kits give a false impression, only 10% of kits will make it beyond the 3 month mark with survival rate of kits between 1-2 months incredibly low. Once reaching sexual maturity mortality rate drops right down to near zero. This high mortality rate at young ages is due to the huge abundancies of predators the rabbits must be vigilant of, foxes, cats, stoats, buzzards, sparrowhawks or even opportunistic badgers, crows or seagulls will take a rabbit kit. 

When they're not battling to survive rabbits will generally be doing one thing; eating. They actually need a surprisingly small amount of food a day maybe 70-80 grams worth. But each small bit of grass constitutes to a tiny fraction of that so they are often seen grazing. In order to equip themselves with defences from their predators over time rabbits have evolved a few nifty traits. Firstly they have superb hearing, secondly they are able to reach top speeds of 35-45 miles per hour whilst also being able to turn nimbly.